Bradford Pear
Removal in Ohio

How to Identify Bradford and Callery Pear

The Bradford pear (Pyrus calleryana ‘Bradford’) is a cultivated variety of Callery pear, originally bred for its symmetrical shape and showy spring flowers. The cultivated Bradford in your neighbor's yard and the invasive Callery pear taking over field edges are the same species — the difference is that the wild offspring revert to thorny, irregular growth.

1. 1White flowers in early spring. Bradford and Callery pear bloom before most native trees — typically late March to mid-April in Ohio. The white, five-petaled flowers appear in dense clusters and are often the first conspicuous tree bloom of the season. The flowers have an unpleasant odor often described as fishy, which is noticeable on warm spring days.
2. 2Glossy, dark green leaves. Leaves are 2–3 inches wide, roughly heart-shaped with finely serrated edges and a glossy upper surface. Fall color ranges from deep red to purple — one reason the tree was popular for landscaping. Wild Callery pear has slightly smaller, more variable leaves.
3. 3Small, hard fruit. The berries are about half an inch in diameter, green turning to brown, and hard enough that they persist on the tree well into winter. Birds eat them after freezing softens the fruit, which is the primary dispersal mechanism. Each fruit contains seeds that germinate readily in disturbed soil along field edges, fence rows, and road shoulders.
4. 4Vicious thorns on wild offspring. This is the critical difference between the landscaped Bradford and the escaped Callery pear. Wild seedlings develop thorns 1–3 inches long that are sharp enough to puncture tires and penetrate leather boots. The cultivated Bradford was selected for thornlessness, but its seedlings revert to the thorny wild type. These thorns make wild Callery pear thickets dangerous to walk through and destructive to equipment.
5. 5Weak branch structure. Bradford pear has a tight, V-shaped branch structure where major limbs attach at steep angles with included bark. This weak attachment point fails under wind, ice, and snow loads. Mature Bradford pears commonly split in half during Ohio storms — a liability for any property with structures nearby.

Why Ohio Banned Bradford Pear

Bradford pear was introduced as a sterile cultivar — it was not supposed to reproduce. The problem is that different Callery pear cultivars cross-pollinate when planted near each other, and the resulting seeds are fully viable. With millions of Bradford pears planted across Ohio in subdivisions, commercial landscapes, and highway medians, cross-pollination became unavoidable.

The seeds that birds disperse from ornamental trees produce wild Callery pear seedlings that are nothing like the manicured landscape tree. The wild offspring grow into dense, thorny thickets with multiple stems, aggressive root systems, and rapid growth that crowds out native species along field edges, fence rows, and woodland margins. A single ornamental Bradford in a suburban yard can spawn dozens of wild Callery pears on surrounding rural properties within a few years.

Ohio banned the sale of Callery pear (all cultivars including Bradford) in 2023 under the authority of the Ohio Department of Agriculture. Existing trees are not required to be removed, but they continue to produce seeds that spread the wild population. The ban stops new plantings but does nothing about the millions of established trees and the wild offspring they have already produced.

How We Remove Bradford and Callery Pear

Wild Callery pear thickets are a forestry mulching job. The thorny stems and multi-stem growth habit make manual removal dangerous and slow, but the Cat HM418 mulching head processes them without any operator contact with the thorns. Most escaped Callery pear stems are within the 8-inch diameter range that the HM418 handles in a single pass.

The mulching process grinds the stems, root crowns, and surface roots into fine mulch. Callery pear resprouts aggressively from the root crown and root system when cut above ground — this is why bush hogging or chainsaw cutting is a temporary fix at best. Grinding the root crown below the soil surface destroys the primary regrowth point.

For larger specimens where the trunk exceeds 8 inches — typically ornamental Bradfords that have been growing for 15+ years — traditional tree removal (felling and stump grinding) is more appropriate. We handle the surrounding wild Callery pear thickets and smaller specimens with forestry mulching, and can coordinate with a tree service for the larger ornamental removals if needed.

After removal, the seed bank in the soil will produce new Callery pear seedlings for several years. Annual monitoring and spot removal of seedlings during the first 2–3 growing seasons prevents reestablishment. The mulch layer from the initial clearing suppresses much of this germination, but some seedlings will push through and need to be pulled or treated.